Agriculture & food security

The large number of Burundian men killed by the HIV/AIDs epidemic or conflict, has created many poor and fragile households headed by women or minors who have little income to spare.  In order for the country to rebuild and provide a future for the next generation, these widows and orphans require adequate housing, healthcare, education and vocational training.

Across the rugged terrain of Tajikistan there are scattered communities in great need.  Disability is stigmatized, medical facilities are overrun, the employment base is narrow and drinking water is in short supply. 

In a country devastated by years of guerilla militia and political upheaval, the rights and opportunities of children with disabilities have fallen by the wayside on governmental agendas.  This school project assists hearing impaired children gain skills necessary for productive lives.

The semi-arid climate of Eastern Kenya is a source for much concern over food and water security.  Exacerbated by climate change and land degradation, the loss of arable soil to erosion poses great risk of famine and drought.  

South Sudan is the world’s newest country having gained independence from Sudan in September 2011, but it didn’t come easily.  The country is taunted by ongoing civil conflict and religious persecution as more than 1 million nationals reside as refugees or internally displaced people.

As humanitarian crises have lifted in Sri Lanka, national development has shifted its focus toward building a strong economic core in the private sector and diversifying rural livelihoods.  Positive demographic transition has accompanied the drive toward middle-income country status but now poses some challenges regarding aged dependency.

Uganda has seen and suffered under almost twenty years of war between The Lord’s Resistance Army and government forces.  During this time, heinous atrocities were committed including massacres, torture, rape and abductions of young ones to become child soldiers and child brides.

Ethnic tension is rampant in Burma.  Skewed spending on defence has stagnated economic growth and development indicators are ubiquitously dubious.  The government refuses basic services to some minorities and the military targets them in ruthless bouts of conflict.  An epidemic of statelessness has emerged whereby many Burmese are internally displaced or have taken refuge in neighbouring countries.

In the central highlands of Ethiopia, food security is extremely fragile.  The staple diet is comprised of an unleavened bread called ‘injera’ made from teff, a low-yielding indigenous crop that requires much labour and care.  Traditional sedentary agriculture accounts for problems of overgrazing, deforestation and soil exhaustion, placing Ethiopia’s agricultural productivity levels as one of the lowest in the world.

Subsistence living is ubiquitous throughout rural Uganda.  Without the capital to purchase land and scale up small enterprises, the majority of families remain fettered to their farms and single-room clay huts with little opportunity to send their children to school.